Matthew Bourne’s 2016 production of The Red Shoes returns to Sadler’s Wells this season with the kind of polish and confidence that only a long-lived show can command.
But this superb revival doesn’t rest on its many accolades, including two Olivier Awards; instead, it raises the stakes and demonstrates yet again why Bourne, and his New Adventures production company, is such an acclaimed theatrical storyteller.
It’s hard to imagine a more coherent and fluid combination of dance, design, music, and narrative.
Not surprisingly, the choreography is the heart and soul of the show. Bourne’s signature style, blending technique and discipline with rhythmic, character-driven dancing that is steeped in sweeping theatrical gestures, brings remarkable clarity to the storytelling.
The principal dancers deliver stellar performances, both individually and together. Dance Captain Cordelia Braithwaite gave leading-lady Victoria Page the perfect combination of confidence and vulnerability.
Braithwaite has been with New Adventures since 2013 and also played this role in the original 2016 touring production. That depth of knowledge and understanding shines through in this most assured performance. And with flaming red hair, there’s more than a passing resemblance to Scottish ballerina Moira Shearer who made the role her own in the classic 1948 film of The Red Shoes by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger.
Andy Monaghan is outstanding as the tyrannical ballet impresario Boris Lermontov. Like Braithwaite, he’s been with the Company since 2013 and played Lermontov, and other roles, in previous runs of the show.
He imbues Lermontov with both a manic restlessness and a glacial determination through movement that is highly expressive and increasingly taut.
Leonardo McCorkindale, as composer Julian Craster, completes the trio at the heart of the story. He’s a relative newcomer to New Adventures, having joined the Company just two years ago.
McCorkindale has a wonderful stage presence, conveying Craster’s twin characteristics of insecurity and ambition. Braithwaite and McCorkindale make an engaging and believable young couple both torn between love and ambition.
The Red Shoes is a ballet-within-a ballet, and these sequences are especially powerful. The principals, and the dancers of the polished ensemble, all bring detail and emotional nuance to the show.
There are layers here of precision choreography that allow the full range of movement from unforced expressiveness to virtuosic showmanship. The ensemble dances with precise musicality, shifting from slick, show-bizzy formations to darker, more dramatic passages with ease.
The dancers communicate the inner lives of their characters through the smallest physical cues: a flick of the wrist, a delayed turn, a pause loaded with emotional subtexts. The duets especially carry a surprising punch of emotional weight, revealing the competing forces of creativity, desire, and ambition.
There is an impressive physical intelligence on display here. There are also wonderfully humorous moments such as the dancing Ancient Egyptians in Act 2 – very music hall comedy night – and Lady Neston’s Soiree in Act 1 with Kayla Collymore as the Lady.
The guests at the Soiree appear to be there out of social obligation rather than any sense of fun, almost grimacing as they dance. Their determinedly fixed facial expressions reminded me instantly of my favourite seasonal book, Saki’s inimitable Christmas with Dull People.
Lez Brotherston’s superb set design is one of the production’s most distinctive elements. The revolving proscenium arch allows smooth transitions between multiple settings switching between multiple locales and the unseen world of life backstage and framing the emotional journeys of the characters.
Brotherston also designed the divine costumes with a wonderful colour palette and stunning silouhettes.
The show is enhanced with painterly projections and extremely sophisticated lighting by Paule Constable and Duncan McLean. These lean into the realm of a cinematic homage with one or two moments highly evocative of the best of Alfred Hitchcock. From a wash of colour across the stage – red, of course – to a startling spotlight, the lighting makes a big dramatic impact.
Together these creative elements help tell the story, echoing its emotional arc and creating a setting that is very visually seductive.
All of this is accentuated by Bernard Herrmann’s score with orchestrations by Terry Davies. The music is brought to life by the talented 16-piece New Adventures Orchestra under musical director and principal conductor Benjamin Pope.
This stunning production of The Red Shoes fully deserves its place on the stage and in our hearts. It shows yet again Matthew Bourne’s masterful command of the narrative dance tradition with boundless theatricality.
There is technical excellence here combined with a deep emotionality and timeless storytelling. It is absolutely a triumph and a benchmark by which others should be measured.
